April Hunt
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 5, 2001
KISSIMMEE -- The bright yellow berries gleaming in the Florida sun captivated Henry Elrod II.
The berries adorned trees at the Star Island Resort, where in April 1999 Elrod brought his family for a vacation
and to celebrate his 47th birthday. Elrod loved the berries. He munched on them through his 19-day visit and was
so smitten that he carried “a big old Zip-Loc of them” back to his Frankfort, Ky., home, his attorney said.
Five days later he was dead.
Elrod's death certificate lists the cause as multiple organ failure from “voluntary ingestion of China berries.”
Indigenous to Asia, China berry trees produce berries, flowers and bark so toxic that six to eight berries have
been known to kill a person.
The tree flourishes in Florida; it does not grow in Kentucky.